The top 11 water parks in Europe

With approximately 1.8 million annual guests and around 4,000 daily visitors, Therme Erding is Europe’s most visited water park. The 185,000-square-metre venue houses the world’s largest thermal bath and spa complex. It is located north of Munich, outside the town of Erding. Before the launch of Therme Erding’s aquatic attractions, it served as a thermal bath facility.

Opened in 1999, Therme Erding features 27 indoor and outdoor slides spanning 2.7km in length. The majority of these were supplied by wiegand.waterrides, a leading water rides and attraction provider. Highlights include the longest tube slide in the world and a virtual reality (VR) waterslide experience.

“The other water parks and spas in Germany are very small,” Marcus Maier, Therme Erding’s general manager, told blooloop. “In my eyes, we are more an entertainment park, like Europa-Park or Phantasialand.”

Prague’s Aquapalace water park occupies an area of 9,150 square metres, making it the largest in Central Europe. As well as the water park, Aquapalace offers a sauna complex, a spa and wellness centre, and a fitness centre. The water park is located in Čestlice and opened in May 2008. In 2019, pre-pandemic, it welcomed 1.3 million visitors. In 2022, Aquapalace attracted 1.2 million guests.

Rides and attractions include the longest waterslide in the Czech Republic, which is one of 12 waterslides. Aquapalace also has a 450-metre-long winding river, artificial waves, the Spacebowl attraction, and pools in three areas – Palace of Adventures, Palace of Relaxation and Palace of Treasures.

Acquired by Parques Reunidos for €226 million in 2018, Tropical Islands is an indoor water park in Brandenburg, Germany. Billed as the largest tropical resort in Europe, the 66,000-square-metre park opened in 2004. Tropical Islands generates annual revenues of €71m, and welcomed more than 1.2 million visitors in 2019. In 2022, Tropical Islands hosted more than 1.1 million guests. The park can house up to 8,200 visitors daily and features attractions including the longest double racer in the world and the highest waterslide tower in Germany.

“Germany is a strategic market for Parques Reunidos,” said Richard Golding, chairman of Parques Reunidos. “As well as representing a truly unique opportunity in itself, Tropical Islands also reinforces our market positioning in the country, where together with Movie Park and Belantis we will reach three million visitors.”

Opened in September 2008, Siam Park is a 46-acre water park on the island of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands. The aquatic attraction has been voted the world’s best water park, a category now merged with best amusement park, in the TripAdvisor Travellers Choice Awards for eight consecutive years. In 2019, Siam Park attracted 1.2 million visitors, and more than 1.1 million in 2022.

Siam Park is owned by Wolfgang Kiessling. “What other parks do is theming,” his son, Christoph Kiessling, told blooloop. “What we do is different. We go to the country, buy materials and work with local craftsmen so that what we build is authentic.” He added: “We control the ride experience like no other water park in the world. We are not plastic fantastic – we are about sensation and emotion.”

Attractions at the Siam-themed park include waterslides such as Singha, Kinnaree, Vulcano and the Tower of Power. The Lost City by WhiteWater, a leading water park manufacturer, offers an additional 15 slides, towers, slides, bridges and water features. The Mai Thai River is one of the longest lazy rivers in the world.

Another water park in the Czech Republic is Aqualand Moravia. Constructed on the site of ancient Roman baths, Aqualand Moravia features swimming pools, a sauna and other wellness experiences, and various waterslides and aquatic attractions.

The water park is currently being renovated, with a new children’s pool, three new slides and a new water tower opened in 2022. The park’s High Five Master Blaster + Constrictor Fusion, pictured, from WhiteWater, won a European Star Award for Best Water Slide in 2022, 2021, 2020. There are currently plans to add a WhiteWater AquaForms 300 modular aquatic play structure to the indoor park.

Aqualand Moravia welcomed more than 800,000 visitors in 2019, before the pandemic. In 2022, 727,000 guests visited the park.

PortAventura’s water park, called Caribe Aquatic Park, covers an area of 50,000 square metres. It houses 16 attractions and pools including Europe’s highest waterslide, King Khajuna. The tropical-themed park also has four restaurants. PortAventura World includes PortAventura Park, Ferrari Land, and eight hotels. The resort is one of the largest leisure destinations in Europe and has had more than 90 million visits since opening in 1995.

In 2023, PortAventura World earned the B Corp certification, which recognises its work in sustainability, social responsibility and good governance. “We are aware of the role we play in the tourism industry and the economic fabric – and being part of the B Corp movement is a corporate philosophy that will guide our present and future steps and decisions,” said Choni Fernández, director of sustainability at PortAventura World.

Europa-Park’s €180m Rulantica water world opened in 2019 with 25 water attractions, including 17 slides, across 32,600 square metres. Inspired by a fictional Norwegian island, Rulantica is the largest single investment in Europa-Park’s history. The water park’s centrepiece is the Surf Fjørd wave pool, while the Vinterhal ice palace houses most of Rulantica’s biggest attractions, all by ProSlide.

Vildstrøm is a wild river, while Snorri’s Saga is the name of the park’s lazy river. The Skip Strand adventure pool includes a sunken ship feature and water obstacle course, and Trølldal is a water playground and shallow pool inhabited by trolls. Rulantica has several themed F&B outlets, including the Tempel Krog swim-up bar, and various shops.

Jeff Havlik, vice president at Rulantica planner PGAV, a global leader in the planning and design of unique destinations, said the park represents “a huge leap in European indoor waterpark architectural design, guest experience, thematic storytelling, operations and functionality”.

He said: “Focusing on the guest experience at every turn has resulted in an immersive, thematic guest experience from the parking lot, hotel and water attractions, to even the support spaces like the locker rooms.”

Jeff Janovich, vice president of business development for ProSlide, said: “In terms of the level of detail, the storytelling and environment that they’ve created, this is on a par with Disney and Universal. Those guys have done it for outdoor water parks, but no one’s done it on this level for indoor parks.”

Tiki Pool in Wassenaar, Netherlands claims to be the largest water park in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. It features 21 waterslides – a total 1.5 kilometres in length – as well as a children’s water park and an outdoor area. In the children’s park, there are four slides and a waterfall, while the outdoor area includes a heated pool and five slides. Tiki Pool also offers a lazy river.

In 2019, the water park welcomed 800,000 guests, and in 2022 it attracted 750,000 visitors.

The Nettebad water park in Osnabrück, Germany provides a family-friendly aquatic experience. Waterslides here include a tube slide, funnel slide and launch slide, as well as a unique standing slide that lets guests ‘surf’ through the park. There is also an aquatic obstacle course and VR snorkelling. In an outdoor area, guests can enjoy a children’s slide and play area.

This attraction welcomed more than 750,000 visitors in 2019, and 650,000 in 2022.

Scandinavia’s largest tropical water park, Lalandia, attracted nearly 700,000 visitors in 2019 and an additional 50,000 in 2022. It can be found in Billund, which is known as the birthplace of Lego and also home to a Legoland resort. The water park includes slides, a wave pool and jacuzzis, as well as wellness experiences. Lalandia also has water parks in Søndervig and Rødby.

WhiteWater provided provided multi-level play structures and water slides to the water park.

ProSlide Technology Inc, an industry leader in water ride manufacturing and design, supplied several slides for the Søndervig location.

Parque Warner Beach is a water park in Madrid operated by Parques Reunidos and found adjacent to the operator’s Parque Warner Madrid theme park. Both are home to attractions based on Warner Bros. intellectual property (IP). Offerings include slides, pools and a lazy river. In 2022, the Spanish water park opened two new slides, Aquaman and Black Manta, created by ProSlide.

Aaron Wilson, ProSlide’s VP of business development for Europe and Latin America, told blooloop: “Siam Park is an enormous reference for us, they’ve set the bar for water parks globally. But the Spanish mainland region is a little bit different. Adding these new rides will certainly boost the profile of the park. These two rides are iconic. They incorporate some of the newest innovations and technologies in water rides.”

The park’s popular Batman: La Sombra del Murciélago ride is WhiteWater’s AquaSphere + Rattler Fusion. It has won a European Star Award for Best Water Slide in 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018. WhiteWater supplied six attractions at Parque Warner Beach including Flatline Loop, a 4-lane Mat Racer, and Super Bowl.